Reddit is removing ability to opt out of ad personalization based on your activity on the platform

Which is illegal in the EU and about to be illegal in Australia ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh nooooo who could have seen this coming... anyway continues using Lemmy

Is reddit owned and operated by a malicious entity? I used to be addicted to that platform, but now I can't stand it.

Uhm, that option was intreduced by sites and ad networks because the GDPR requires it so unless they plan to shut down buisness in the EU it's probably going to fail!

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I haven't used reddit in months

They're gonna remove old reddit aren't they?

The speed at which they are destroying Reddit is just impressive. Spez saw Musk taking a shit on Twitter on the daily and became inspired.

Solution: only use Reddit for porn.

Lol what ads. Old.reddit with Reddit enhancement suite and Ublock Origin. That's the only way I ever browse Reddit anymore. I have never seen an ad on Reddit. If they ever get rid of old Reddit I'll never go back there. As it is my Reddit usage has decreased by 95% since using Lemmy and never browsing Reddit any other place than my pc.

Who didn't see this coming? Kill all good third party apps and funnel everyone into their dogshit, undercooked app and then leverage every metric and interaction for advertising

This is how my love for uBlock Origin grows day by day...

If we're serious about transforming the conversation around this issue, we've got to be more intentional with the words we choose. Let's call a spade a spade: labeling them as "personalized ads" is a gross understatement.

It's more than that. It's like someone constantly lurking behind you, watching every move you make, and getting into the private spaces of your mind. It isn't mere content tailoring—it's relentless stalking and a brazen assault on our psyche.

We need to call it what it is.

GDPR violation.

Isn't that illegal under GDPR or something?

So they're preparing to get sued tens of millions of dollors by the EU in March of next year?

Now's a good time to advertise the fediverse, if you're still on reddit. Just pick your favorite instance, and tell people to check it out and to click "login/register" if they like it.

I urge everyone to install Adnauseum. You know what's better than trying to starve advertisers of info? Filling their ad profile for you with total garbage.

Glad I'm reading this on Lemmy. Well, "glad" isn't the right word, but you know....

It's just now called "Delete Profile". 😅

Permanently Deleted

That is alright I opted out of ads by installing uBlock Origin.

Okay. I stopped using reddit (and cancelled my premium membership) when Apollo stopped working, so hope it works out for them.

Honestly never been so happy to move off Reddit, every other week I’m hearing Reddit just shoot itself in the foot and then double down even harder to lose users

I’m really glad I’ve stopped actively using Reddit. The day Apollo shut down was my last day on the platform. Sure if a search result leads to a Reddit post I’ll still go, but long gone are the days of mindless scrolling through r/all. Probably has significantly improved my mental health too.

based on your activity on the platform

Which activity?

Glad I jumped off that train..

Porn ads incoming.

I actually enjoyed ad personalization when it first started. I got shown ads for things that were actually interesting to me, video games hardware etc, but at this point it resembles what cable TV ads were when I stopped watching TV: car commercials, prescription drugs, baby and feminine products (am not parent, am not female). So now they just spying your behavior to learn the best way to trick you into buying crap you don't need and don't supply any sort of reach around.

Speedrunning to Twitter to try and impress his man crush Elon

Fuck Reddit.

Permanently Deleted

I got this message too. I’m torn between just deleting the accounts and be done with it and leaving them to sit with no activity and no ad impressions.

Thank God. I love seeing that place die

The only really long term viable model is a donation model. Ad tracking is abusive and the legality is waning, and subscription models for what's basically a public good are fucked.

reddit makes experience worse for users

Other shocking news at 11

Woah big shocker, anyway

If you wanna keep your bookmarks and the subreddits (communities) that you're subscribed to before deleting your account, I made a free tool to help you store and offload that data.

It's called Reddit Account Manager, and it's 100% free.

You can also use it to manage your Lemmy account(s), of course.

I still go to Reddit subs when something interesting appears in my RSS feed.

As soon as they kill RSS (and honestly I'm pretty surprised they haven't yet), I'll never go there again.

I guess anyone who is still there don't care. :)

Reddit Revanced says no!

That shit is beyond broken. I‘m glad I left.

Maybe I'll stop getting those "He Gets Us" ads if I cruise the atheist subreddits.

The new pinned sponsor add at the top is so distracting. Used it to figure out a sports stream, awful experience.

It feels like we’re hitting a point similar to politics in America. 30% will hold on no matter what, and the company is going to take them for all their worth because they know they’re die hard loyalists and aren’t leaving.

I opted out by deleting every trace of my account and never returning. it was easy.

This is the message they are sending to users:

Hey u/username,

We will soon begin rolling out changes to Reddit's User settings. It is getting a refresh that includes changes to ad personalization, privacy preferences, and location settings.

As part of these changes, we are retiring a setting that you have previously turned on that limited how we used your activity from the Reddit platform to personalize ads. We have replaced the setting with a new option to select categories of ads that you may not wish to see.

More details are available in our announcement and help center.

These changes are rolling out starting today and you may see the changes over the next few days.

Is Reddit still alive? I have been away for months 😂

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Reddit said Wednesday that the platform is revamping its privacy settings with an aim to make ad personalization and account visibility toggles consistent.

Our advertisers instead rely on on-platform activity—what communities you join, leave, upvotes, downvotes, and other signals—to get an idea of what you might be interested in,” Reddit said.

Reddit is seemingly removing toggles for getting post recommendations based on “general location” and activity on partner sites and apps.

The social network said it will also roll out controls to limit certain advertising categories such as alcohol, weight loss, dating, gambling pregnancy, and parenting.

It infamously made changes to its data API terms that led to many third-party clients shutting down and subreddits protesting in retaliation.

In an interview with The Verge in June, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman responded to IPO rumors and said “Getting to breakeven is a priority for us in any climate.”

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